Old Couple Lyrics
They're waiting to be murdered,
Or evicted. Soon
They expect to have nothing to eat.
As far as I know, they never go out.
A vicious pain's coming, they think.
It will start in the head
And spread down to the bowels.
They'll be carried off on stretchers, howling.
In the meantime, they watch the street
From their fifth floor window.
It has rained, and now it looks
Like it's going to snow a little.
I see him get up to lower the shades.
If their window stays dark,
I know that his hand has reached hers
Just as she was about to turn on the lights.
Or evicted. Soon
They expect to have nothing to eat.
As far as I know, they never go out.
A vicious pain's coming, they think.
It will start in the head
And spread down to the bowels.
They'll be carried off on stretchers, howling.
In the meantime, they watch the street
From their fifth floor window.
It has rained, and now it looks
Like it's going to snow a little.
I see him get up to lower the shades.
If their window stays dark,
I know that his hand has reached hers
Just as she was about to turn on the lights.
About
Genius Annotation
This poem addresses the public life. The public life in the poetry world refers to poems that affect all people of all ages. It is not private in the fact of we are not reading about things that happen behind a closed door and are unavailable to the public. In this poem, Simic is talking about the public life of an older couple. It is based in the third-person point of view speculating about the older couple’s attitude on ageing and it is this person speaking the poem.
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